Is that a Wisp?

The Monster Geckos seemed to be in a festive mood as the Monster Gecko King soon raised its arm, causing the crowd to bellow with a festive spirit.

Upon a general estimate, there were at least 5000 Monster Geckos in the place, causing Krune to feel fear. After all, this was just under one Monster Gecko King. There were still four other Monster Gecko Kings on the Primary Landmass. In other words, he still had to face a lot of enemies before his dagger would reach the neck of their leaders.

Then again, aiming for the Monster Gecko King was almost impossible, considering it was always surrounded by a massive troop of Monster Geckos. Even otherwise, given the situation where it was alone, Krune had no confidence in facing it.

He had to spring up enough traps to damage it first before daring to go against it. Now that they were in a festive celebration, Krune decided that this was the best time to place his traps all over the place.

After a month's preparation, he had more than enough traps to use. Krune made repeated trips from his cave to the Monster Gecko village, bringing with him traps that he carefully held, placing them on numerous paths that trailed out from the village.

Of course, he took precautions to ensure that they wouldn't notice anything amiss after stepping on the traps. He first treaded through the paths himself, feeling the sharpness of the rocks that jutted out unevenly.

In a place with a lot of sharp rocks, he laid the traps one after another, placing at least three traps on a path, separated by at least 30 meters from one another. He then did the same on other paths,  letting out a sigh in relief when he had placed almost 80 traps around the Monster Gecko village, covering almost all the paths that they took to traverse.

This way, he was bound to damage a lot of them. After laying down all the traps, Krune arrived near the village, hiding behind a large bone tree as he hooted continuously, using the repeated sound transmissions to get a better image of the scene happening within.

It seemed that the Monster Geckos were having a tournament to decide the winner for something as all the able-bodied Monster Geckos participated in the fights. Even though a lot of them suffered from varying injuries, none of them died.

After all, when approached with such a situation, the Monster Gecko King would stop the match and declare a winner. Eventually, two contestants managed to win all their matches without suffering from any serious wounds, reaching the finals.

Now, they faced each other, going head-to-head the moment they were motioned to. Throughout the fight, none of them used any weapons, relying on their bare bodies to fight, as was their custom.

The two Monster Geckos were significantly skilled. The moment he observed their fighting, Krune realized that if he fought against one of them, they would be evenly matched. This was considering the immense fighting experience Krune had amassed. After all, he was an old monster.

But now, the fact that two Monster Geckos had the same level of combat experience as him, Krune was left aghast, realizing that there was more to the Monster Geckos than what met the eye. It made him wonder how scary the Monster Gecko King would be.

The two Monster Geckos fought for a long time before one of them ended up as the victor, raising its hands as it hissed with all its might, causing the crowd to roar in response. It then arrived before the Monster Gecko King, bowing.

The Monster Gecko King stood up as its hulking figure caused the crowd to turn silent. It then grabbed hold of the massive fruit and placed it before the winner, motioning for it to help itself. The winning Monster Gecko immediately gobbled up the massive fruit, struggling to eat as time passed, its belly feeling like it would burst.

Though, without stopping, it still continued to eat, stuffing itself to the brim. At the start, it looked like it might burst. But some time later, it seemed as if it could still keep eating. In actuality, it was because its body was increasing in size.

Soon, by the time it finished eating the fruit, its body had ballooned, seemingly on the verge of bursting. The winning Monster Gecko was no longer able to even move, remaining in place as it looked helpless. Even though that was the case, its body was subtly changing as it was digesting everything in the fruit, causing it to evolve as even its bone structure was changing, becoming larger as its bloated body began to adjust little by little, causing the crowd to cheer in response.

Krune realized that by the time the winning Monster Gecko finished absorbing everything from the fruit, it would become a Mutated Monster Gecko. 'Is that how they're created? Then, why aren't they created en masse?'

He couldn't fully understand the mechanics of the system in place, just deciding to experiment and see if he could create a Mutated Monster Gecko on his own. As long as he killed it right before it finished evolving, there might be a chance for him to harvest some Godly Points.

'Well, it took a month for that fruit to ripen. So, if I plan to do the same, I have to plant a bone tree in a secluded cave. Since I won't suffer any losses even if there are more of them, I should try to experiment to the limit. If it works, then it's better for me,' he thought before muttering, "Even if they're strong and have shown exceptional hunting capabilities, they don't seem sentient. So, that might explain the reason why they hadn't figured out this mechanic."

"Well, I'll know once I try it out." Krune shook his head and began to retreat, scouting across the mountain range to find caves that were hidden and wouldn't fall under the radar of the Monster Geckos.

After all, most of them didn't leave the forest of bone trees. As the caves were on the very edge where nothing grew, there wasn't a chance they would try to roam there. Moreover, Krune discovered a couple more routes to climb up the mountain range, apart from the one he arrived at the start.

Unlike that route, these were more secluded and weren't beside any bone trees. So, his worries were lessened. As the fruits from the bone trees were the food of the Monster Geckos, the Monster Geckos on watch outside all across the mountain range would only arrive through places that were nearest to the forest.

And since they were able to walk over the walls as if it was normal, they wouldn't even need the help of the paths.

Eventually, after a couple of days of scouting one side of the place, Krune managed to find 10 caves that fit his description.

He already planted the branch of a bone tree in each, intending to grow them soon enough. After that, Krune hunted a Monster Gecko daily, capturing it alive before making a small cut on its tail, attaching it to one of the bone tree branches.

Once its blood was completely sucked dry, he stored the meat and bones in his cave. Upon seeing that they began to grow into a tree at a rapid pace, he kept up with his hunt, training with the Whale Tooth Sword and making traps during his free time.

From time to time, he could hear the screams of some Monster Geckos from whose bodies a bone tree began to grow all of a sudden, causing them to pull it out immediately. In most of those cases, the Monster Gecko was fine, having treated it swiftly.

All they suffered was a flesh wound that healed within a couple of weeks. As for the unlucky ones, they died when the bone sprouts growing from their bodies were pulled out. Their roots had already tangled with the leg bones of the Monster Gecko, bringing them along when the bone sprouts were pulled out.

To ensure that he wouldn't alert the Monster Gecko village too much, Krune also began to make longer trips, soon approaching the vicinity of the second village as he began to hunt the Monster Geckos from there. Just to make it seem fair, he also laid down traps during his frequent trips. This way, both villages would suffer.

Through such a schedule, he soon filled his cave with enough meat to last him for the rest of his stay on the Primary Landmass. When he reached that point, Krune began to consume more and more meat voraciously, training and working harder so that his body would burn all the food he was consuming.

With such conditions, he trained his body even more roughly, depending on the water in his cave at the end of the day to heal any fatigue and strains developed in him. This way, when he woke up, he felt fresh, without any sore muscles.

His training continued at a steady pace as Krune was able to swing the Whale Tooth Sword at least three to four times before his arms started to ache, a considerable improvement from the start when he wasn't even able to make a proper swing.

Another month passed in such a fashion as Krune looked at the massive fruit hanging before him. It was as big as him, looking no different from the one he had seen before. Similarly, all the other nine caves also contained the same fruit.

Until now, he wasn't discovered, a massive thanks to the passive ability, Sonic Radar. Krune realized that he wouldn't have been able to do anything without the two passives that he relied on for everything.

Neon Radiance and Sonic Radar. They had become one with him now, having used them for literally everything. Moreover, as he used them, his expertise with them was improving, now being able to use them with greater precision. With that, his scouting abilities had also improved.

Finally, as the day he thought approached, Krune took great pains to capture a Monster Gecko alive and dragged it all the way to one of the caves, keeping an eye on its expression all along. Upon seeing its excitement when it noticed the massive fruit, Krune smiled, thinking that his conjecture had indeed worked.

After all, it seemed the fruits of the bone trees directly nurtured the Monster Geckos. So, if one lived long enough and had consumed a lot of the fruits, it would eventually turn into a Mutant. And if it lived even longer and consumed even more fruits, it would become a King.

But, the massive fruit shortened this process, allowing a normal Monster Gecko to become a Mutant within a week. All the fruits on the bone trees were concentrated blood essence that seemed to develop the monsters drastically.

After his numerous experiments, Krune was able to say that with assurance.